In a glass melting furnace the burdens and temperature of the molten mass need to be controlled and regulated.
The control and regulation of the burdens currently in use give acceptable results, but this is not the case with the control and adjustment of the temperatures.
It should be borne in mind that temperatures in a glass furnace are extremely high, usually above 1,300xc2x0 C., the molten mass of glass has an enormous thermal inertia, and glass containers are rejected because of flaws if they are not drawn from a glass mass at the right temperature.
This all leads to huge uncontrolled energy consumption and great losses xe2x80x9ca posteriorixe2x80x9d in rejected containers.
The applicant has investigated the origin of the problems described above and considers that they are caused by the real temperatures of the glass mass in liquid form being unknown and that this is due to the fact that the current arrangement of the temperature gauges on the periphery of the liquid mass is basically inadequate.
It is considered that with these current arrangements no account is taken of the uncontrollable fluctuations in temperature inside the mass, the internal convention of the liquid glass mass, nor the variations in temperature in a synchronous disconnexion in the same liquid mass.
It is also considered that the gauges used are not the right ones and fundamentally, as mentioned above, that the location of the temperature gauges is absolutely inadequate.
The temperature gauges should be immersed in the liquid glass in the area that provides the best information regarding temperatures and detects the fluctuations in temperature in the mass as fast as possible.
This area has been discovered by the applicant.
For this reason, the glass melting furnace in this invention is of the type that have a melting chamber with an outlet holding the liquid glass mass, and at least one flue gas recuperative chamber, means for supplying the influx of fuel, and featuring at least one temperature gauge for measuring mass immersed in the liquid glass mass and placed approximately:
a) at a height with respect to the bottom of the melting chamber of ⅓ to ⅕ of the height of the level of the liquid glass mass,
⅕ hxe2x89xa6h2xe2x89xa6⅓ h, and
b) on the longitudinal axis of the melting chamber at a distance with respect to the wall of the chamber opposite the outlet of between 0.6 and 0.85 of the length (l) of the melting chamber
0.6 lxe2x89xa611xe2x89xa60.85 l
It also features a means of calculating the derivative of the temperature in the liquid mass and the derivative of the temperature in the gases with regard to time based on the data provided by the mass temperature gauge(s) and the gas temperature gauge.